meanness, availed himself of his skill as a
printer, to publish these letters, and that he sold them far and wide,
that he might enrich himself. Charges better calculated to ruin a man,
in the view of these proud lords, can scarcely be conceived. It is
doubtful whether there were another man in the world, who could have
received them so calmly, and in the end could have so magnificently
triumphed over them.

During all this really terrific assailment, Franklin stood with his
head resting on his left hand, apparently unmoved. At the close, he
declined answering any questions. The committee of the council
reported on that same day, "the lords of the committee, do agree
humbly to report as their opinion to your majesty, that the said
petition is founded upon resolution's, formed upon false and erroneous
allegations, and that the same is false, vexatious and scandalous; and
calculated only for the seditious purposes of keeping up a spirit of
clamor and discontent in said province." The king accepted the report,
and acted accordingly. Franklin went home alone. We know not why his
friends thus apparently deserted him.

The next morning, which was Sunday, Priestly breakfasted at Franklin's
table. He represents him as saying that he could not have borne
the insults heaped upon him by the privy council, but for the
consciousness, that he had done only that which was right. On Monday
morning Franklin received a laconic letter from the Postmaster
General, informing him that the king had found it necessary to dismiss
him from the office of deputy Postmaster General in America.

This outrage, inflicted by the privy council of Great Britain, upon a
friendly ambassador from her colonies, who had visited her court with
the desire to promote union and harmony, was one of the most
atrocious acts ever perpetrated by men above the rank of vagabonds in
their drunken carousals. Franklin, in transmitting an account to
Massachusetts, writes in a noble strain:

"What I feel on my own account, is half lost in what I feel
for the public. When I see that all petitions and complaints
of grievances, are so odious to government, that even the
mere pipe which conveys them, becomes obnoxious, I am at a
loss to know how peace and union are to be maintained, and
restored between the different parts of the empire.
Grievances cannot be redressed, unless they are known. And
they cannot be known, but through compl